Billy eckstein biography
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Billy Eckstine
Being on the same show with Sammy Davis is marvellous. I’ve known Sam, I guess, maybe thirty–five years—when I had my band, he was a dancer with a trio. We’ve been friends a long, long time. We have a lot of fun; it’s very relaxing, you know.
But he does the impression of me too well ! Do I listen to jazz now? Remember me? That’s my roots, and I’ll never get away from it. As for that band of mine—now that it’s over, I can say that I believe it was the best band other ‘than Duke Ellington’s legendary band. Really—now that I don’t have to sound like I’m braggadocio. But the bad thing was: nobody heard it.
The whole problem, in those days, was that they wanted me to get a band that was more or less just a background thing for my singing. But no way—I couldn’t think of it that way. In fact, before I organised the band, the plans were to take a band that was already organised. The one they mentioned was a band named George Hudson, from St. Louis, where people like Cla
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Although best known as a popular balladeer, Billy Eckstine, an early supporter of the new music, led the first bebop grupp. He was born William Clarence Eckstein on July 8, , in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and, until he suffered a broken collar bone as a teenager, had considered a career in sports. After winning an amateur singing contest while in college at Howard University, he entered a full-time vocal career and changed the spelling of his gods name.
In he joined Earl Hines’ band and learned to play trumpet. It was during this time that he met Sarah Vaughan and many of the young beboppers, among them Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie who came through the Hines band. While with Hines he had a hit with his own “Jelly, Jelly.”
In he formed his own band to back his vocals, but in hiring such personnel as parkerar, Gillespie, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro, and others, the group became known for its bebop-laced instrumentals and fine arrangemang. Eckstine’s popular vocal r
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Billy Eckstine (8 July – 8 March ), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA as William Clarence Eckstein. He changed the spelling to Eckstine after a club owner said the original spelling was "too Jewish".
Eckstine was an American jazz singer and bandleader who also played trumpet, valve trombone, and guitar. He also performed briefly as Billy X. Stine. His nickname was Mr. B. Although best known as a singer, his openness to new music made him a strong influence on modern jazz, particularly bebop, as he gave employment to many of the musicians who founded the style.
After singing with the Earl Hines band from to he led his own band from to The band featured at various times a large number of rising jazz stars, including:
Saxophones: Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Lucky Thompson, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Budd Johnson, Leo parkerar
Trumpets: Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Fats Navarro
Drums: Art Blakey
Singers: Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan
Ecksti